The national gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy and its subsidiary Ukrtransgaz, the operator of the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS), have received requests from EU gas trading companies to organize gas flows through Ukraine between Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, however their implementation is hindered by the uncompetitive behavior of Russian gas giant Gazprom, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev has said.
“Because of Gazprom’s uncompetitive behavior EU companies cannot use the available infrastructure to freely trade in other EU and non-EU markets,” Kobolev said in a statement on April 22, in which he welcomes the action brought by the European Commission against Gazprom concerning its dominant position on the EU market.
As reported, on April 22, the European Commission sent Gazprom a statement of objections to the company, saying that some of its business practices in Central and Eastern European gas markets constitute an abuse of its dominant market position in breach of EU antitrust rules.
“On the basis of its investigation, the Commission’s preliminary view is that Gazprom is breaking EU antitrust rules by pursuing an overall strategy to partition Central and Eastern European gas markets, for example by reducing its customers’ ability to resell the gas cross-border. This may have enabled Gazprom to charge unfair prices in certain member states. Gazprom may also have abused its dominant market position by making the supply of gas dependent on obtaining unrelated commitments from wholesalers concerning gas transport infrastructure,” the EC said in the statement.
Gazprom now has 12 weeks to reply to the statement of objections and can also request an oral hearing to present its arguments.
